Let's see your grade sheets!

[Reflected]

Excellent job, and well done on the quals! Anything above 3 is really good. Now comes the cruise which is a whole new campaign, and you’ll have to remember everything you learned. 

[Indianajon]

Thanks @Reflected it really has been the most fun, enjoyable and hardest thing I have done in dcs! I will be honest the qual scores are my estimates as i didnt catch what it said but in me defence. The case 1 was an ok 3 wire with no comments provided and i reckon would have scored around 70 on Banklers trainer. The case 3 was an OK 3 again but i cut power in the wires as I knew the trap had happened and I was just relieved so didn't boot it.

The cq's were the one thing I felt fairly confident about as along with refuelling it's the one thing I have been practicing since the release. 

I've read the brief for my first Mission and hyped and ready. Zipped lip recoveries is going to be a new experience though. I'm trying to make sure I keep my head in the game and not focus too much on that before I need too. I do feel ready though.

[1Batz]

On 2/1/2023 at 2:14 AM, Reflected said:

 

HOLY SMOKES!!!!

That is beyond impressive. My hat's off to you! 

PS: if you pass the night CQ, the campaign is not over, you're going on deployment

 

Gentlemen, the bar is set HIGH!

Thank you! I must admit I did fly a couple an extra time since the first go around I wasn't quite sure of what was going on or how I was being graded but I figured it out.

I did get a below satisfactory on my case 3 but it is what it is. I'm about half way through the campaign now and it is extremely fun. However, I must admit the J11's are a bit too easy to kill haha! Doing all the precise maneuvers now are showing to be quite the challenge since my joystick <profanity> the bed and it only registers 75% of its pitch/roll scale so now all my movements are exaggerated.  

[Reflected]

16 minutes ago, 1Batz said:

Thank you! I must admit I did fly a couple an extra time since the first go around I wasn't quite sure of what was going on or how I was being graded but I figured it out.

I did get a below satisfactory on my case 3 but it is what it is. I'm about half way through the campaign now and it is extremely fun. However, I must admit the J11's are a bit too easy to kill haha! Doing all the precise maneuvers now are showing to be quite the challenge since my joystick <profanity> the bed and it only registers 75% of its pitch/roll scale so now all my movements are exaggerated.  

It's not the J-11s being easy, it's your training paying off  

[dilbadil]

Making my navy family ashamed with these scores lol, but I did jump straight into the campaign after learning how to cold start the plane for the first time. Really awesome stuff, Reflected, I'm going to try and get my mate to go through this too so we can be a little more coordinated together!

[Reflected]

You improvement is very impressive! Well done!

[Wavehopper]

So far it's going quite well, a few retries here and there for the more fiddly stuff (Lantirn, snapshots, etc).

I made the mistake of doing both the air to ground and air to air this evening and my brain is putty.  Group A2A next then the CQ's. 

I miss the boat..... I've been over desert for two months now (just finished zone 5)

 

F-14 RAG GRADE SHEET
UNIT:	VF-101 GRIM REAPERS
NAME:	J**** "Wavehopper" H*****
HOP	TASK	GRADE
1	Familiarization flight
	Familiarization flight	Average
2	Day formation and AAR
	Parade formation	Average
	Breakups and rendez-vous	Above Average
	Cruise formation	Average
	g-warm	Average
	Shackle	Average
	Crossturn	Above Average
	Tac turns	Above Average
	In place turns	Average
	Aerial refueling	Above Average
3	Night formation and AAR
	Parade formation	Average
	Breakups and rendez-vous	Above Average
	Cruise formation	Average
	Aerial refueling	Above Average
4	Intercepts and LATT
	Run 1	Above Average
	Run 2	Average
	LATT	Average
5	Air to Ground
	GBU & LANTIRN	Average
	CCIP	Above Average
	Low pops	Average
	Strafe	Average
	Low pop strafe	Average
6	1v1 BFM
	Snapshot drill	Average
	Defensive perch	Above Average
	Offensive perch	Above Average
	1 circle abeam set	Above Average
	2 circle abeam set	Above Average
	Butterfly set	Average
7	2v2
	Run 1
	Run 2
	Run 3
8	4v4
	Run 1
	Run 2
9	Day carrier landing qualifications
	Day qual
10	Nigh carrier landing qualifications
	Night qual
FINAL GRADE		Average
FINAL SCORE		3.428571429

 

 

[Reflected]

@Wavehopper looking really good so far! The 2v2 and 4v4 shouldn't be a problem if you've done so well so far. And then the CQ, that's the big one.

[Wavehopper]

On 2/14/2023 at 1:38 AM, Reflected said:

@Wavehopper looking really good so far! The 2v2 and 4v4 shouldn't be a problem if you've done so well so far. And then the CQ, that's the big one.

 

The final score is in (think I got a bit gyped with an EGIW at the end):

F-14 RAG GRADE SHEET
UNIT:	VF-101 GRIM REAPERS
NAME:	Jonny "Wavehopper" H
HOP	TASK	GRADE
1	Familiarization flight
	Familiarization flight	Average
2	Day formation and AAR
	Parade formation	Average
	Breakups and rendez-vous	Above Average
	Cruise formation	Average
	g-warm	Average
	Shackle	Average
	Crossturn	Above Average
	Tac turns	Above Average
	In place turns	Average
	Aerial refueling	Above Average
3	Night formation and AAR
	Parade formation	Average
	Breakups and rendez-vous	Above Average
	Cruise formation	Average
	Aerial refueling	Above Average
4	Intercepts and LATT
	Run 1	Above Average
	Run 2	Average
	LATT	Average
5	Air to Ground
	GBU & LANTIRN	Average
	CCIP	Above Average
	Low pops	Average
	Strafe	Average
	Low pop strafe	Average
6	1v1 BFM
	Snapshot drill	Average
	Defensive perch	Above Average
	Offensive perch	Above Average
	1 circle abeam set	Above Average
	2 circle abeam set	Above Average
	Butterfly set	Average
7	2v2
	Run 1	Above Average
	Run 2	Average
	Run 3	Above Average
8	4v4
	Run 1	Average
	Run 2	Average
9	Day carrier landing qualifications
	Day qual	Above Average
10	Night carrier landing qualifications
	Night qual	Average
FINAL GRADE		Average
FINAL SCORE		3.428571429

 

Time for the real meat and potatoes now. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Wavehopper

[Lt_Jaeger]

I hate the red stuff, but what you gonna do.

First try only

Edited February 26, 2023 by Lt_Jaeger

[Reflected]

Still over 3.0, so that’s pretty good!

[Wavehopper]

Great result.  Don't beat yourself up over a couple of blips.

[Jayhawk1971]

[Reflected]

Good job!

[RimanDk]

Phew! What a ride!

Just finished my night qual on a high note and rushed over to share my grade sheet!

Save for a handful, none of these are first attempts. I worked most of them up from Unsats or Below Avg's over 2-10 attempts depending on the task. Most of them took like 3 attempts to get right.

Some of it was missing information I needed to fill in on my own. Some of it was misunderstanding the briefing. For either of these, it's pretty clear I'm just an enthusiast that never took lessons in any of this stuff and there are bits and pieces of the basics that I was/am just missing. Then, there's the bits where I thought I had done everything right, but the triggers wouldn't trigger (such as the BVR->BFM, where you need to actually cross the bandit's 3/9 line for your shots to count - had to repeat those a looooot of times before I got that... + the soft g-limit screwed me over many times...)

nullnullIt's been frustrating. It's been heart-wrenching. It's been exhilarating and highly rewarding to finally overcome some of these! I learned so much from doing these! Easily worth the price of admission just for the first 10 missions alone! Can't wait to get into the second part!

[Reflected]

Thanks for sharing and congrats! Enjoy the deployment

Just a few remarks, nobody said you need to cross the 3/9 line to kill the bandit, kills are valid when Paco and the training officer decides you've done enough BFM practice. Also, there is no 'soft g-limit', there's just the g-limit in the NATOPS. 6.5 g-s.

But yeah, don't worry about multiple attempts, IRL they practiced these several times. I'm glad you found it rewarding and I hope you learned something new in the process.

[RimanDk]

22 hours ago, Reflected said:

Thanks for sharing and congrats! Enjoy the deployment

Just a few remarks, nobody said you need to cross the 3/9 line to kill the bandit, kills are valid when Paco and the training officer decides you've done enough BFM practice. Also, there is no 'soft g-limit', there's just the g-limit in the NATOPS. 6.5 g-s.

But yeah, don't worry about multiple attempts, IRL they practiced these several times. I'm glad you found it rewarding and I hope you learned something new in the process.

On the 3/9 line, I was having similar issues as the gents in this thread, where the 3/9 line was brought up: 

Shots taken after the "2's engaged" call still didn't count for whatever reason. It only worked once I made sure I passed that 3/9 line. Could be a question of timing. Shooting within 3-5s of the call still annulled any hits that I scored.

*shrug*

The reason I call it a "soft" limit is that there is no "hard" limit in the game. The jet in the game is perfectly capable of pulling past 6.5 without breaking. The control surfaces don't get bent or stuck (not talking about flaps, which you are not supposed to use in dogfights anyway). Sure, you can tear off the wings in absurd, extreme circumstances, but I have never experienced it in a conventional dogfight before.

The second part to this is that there's no reliable indication that you are pulling too hard, which makes it incredibly hard to avoid. Like the vast majority, I don't have an FFB stick, so I can't do it by feel. That leaves me to constantly glance at the G-meter while manoeuvring to try to figure out how much I can pull to hit that magical number without passing it. I already struggle to track bandits visually as is, without needing the ulterior distraction of having to constantly mind a gauge that's halfway across the world, if you catch my drift =). Cockpit shake is an indication of AOA, not G-load, as far as I understand.

Finally, the AI doesn't give a crap about g-limits.

All of that combines to make this tolerance of 6.5g feel artificial if you will? I have to respect it because the mission tells me to (because you're adhering to Natops) - not because the game demands it. I'm not g-locking. The plane's not coming apart. The AI is flying circles around me. I feel like I'm fighting with my hands tied behind my back and it feels unfair and thus aggravating - does that make sense?

There is no blame in this comment. AI and damage modelling are outside of your control. Just sharing that those timeline intercepts have required numerous playthroughs, which became pretty aggravating in the end, due to those factors. I guess I would love for overstepping the limit to have a consequence less severe than automatic Unsat?

I still appreciated learning the tactics, the call-outs, etc. Feeling like part of a division doing a proper intercept was awesome! The immersion was off the chart. I loved it. I just wish the BFM portion had been less tricky to figure out and execute.

The formation flying portions were also nigh on impossible for me. I can easily get into position (and loved learning what the right positions are for the various formation flying styles), but my reflexes are too slow to react properly to the course changes and maintain position.

These few frustrations aside, I will happily repeat that this has been an absolute blast so far! The explanations (white-boards, briefings, images/screenshots for alignment) and the syllabus are all masterfully done and put the bar at a whole new level. In all honesty, I never thought basic flight could be this challenging and exciting - and never knew that I craved this sort of content so vividly! It truly fills a massive gap in DCS and I firmly believe that this syllabus should come with every plane/module you get, just adapted to the airframe. I know it's an unrealistic ask - and I would never ask it of you specifically. The point is that playing through this has been such an eye-opener for content that is direly missing in DCS and imo should be there. Yes, most modules come with training missions, but it's just not the same thing in the slightest!

PS - I know you were worried about the chunked up missions and continuity; don't worry about it, it's perfect the way it is! In fact, this approach was hugely beneficial for allowing me to load up and attempt the bits I was interested in, which was absolutely appreciated (even though it was a side-effect of DCS limitations :D)

Edited March 20, 2023 by RimanDk

[Dentedend10]

On the right you can see my first run-through with no retries. On the left is my second run-through with retries on the Unsats. The improvement definitely feels good, and definitely feeling like a more competent virtual pilot thanks to this campaign! 

[Reflected]

@RimanDk yeah I know what you mean now. In the real Tomcat you didn't do much damage by overstressing a few g-s either. Paco told me that on deployment if they overstressed it was no big deal. But in the RAG you got a down for sure.

 

@Dentedend10 Nice, yes it's the improvement that counts

[Lt.Salty]

 Finally! I just finished night carrier quals and I'm exited to join the fleet. The RAG was awesome, but also pretty hard. Especially formation flying and 4v4 run 2. That agressiv, pre-merch importal F16 is one tough cookie, especially with the new ai update and reintroduced wing-rock. But I'm still proud of myself even tough I might overstress the jet from time to time and my formation flying skills still need to be refined. Let's ship out!        

Edited March 22, 2023 by Lt.Salty

[Mochizuki_Mk19]

Just completed the whole campaign - what an experience! Although a lot of confusion during the process, but everything becomes less important when I see the fireworks on that casino in the huge formation.

This campaign definitely made me a better Tomcat pilot and had an overall wonderful experience. Thank you Reflected!

[Reflected]

Well done!

[Ganesh]

Ok, here is my modest but honest sheet Left side 1st attempt, right side 2nd and 3rd attempt.

I have to say that S&A was my introduction to the F-14 and had no previous training.
By the time i got to AARs, i was always so tired & exhausted after all the previous repeated tasks that i couldn't do any better.

I have no idea the numbers below are still correct? Don´t think so.
Edit: ^^ due to excel calculation i found out 2.17 is correct for my first attempt and 3.05 my score after repeat.
 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Ganesh
Edit

[Reflected]

2 hours ago, Ganesh said:

Ok, here is my modest but honest sheet Left side 1st attempt, right side 2nd and 3rd attempt.

I have to say that S&A was my introduction to the F-14 and had no previous training.
By the time i got to AARs, i was always so tired & exhausted after all the previous repeated tasks that i couldn't do any better.

I have no idea the numbers below are still correct? Don´t think so.

 

I see a lot of improvement, and that's the whole point, isn't it? Well done!

[Ganesh]

Am 31.10.2023 um 00:45 schrieb Reflected:

I see a lot of improvement, and that's the whole point, isn't it? Well done!

It is!  2.17 -> 3.05  yeah, i'm happy with myself
I think it is the most challenging campaign available, but also the most rewarding one.
Thanks again for the great contend you provide to DCS